Shabbat Gathering: Torah study.
Dear Chevra, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:
Zoom
Meeting ID: 963 5113 1550
Password: 1989
Phone: +1 312 626 6799
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Here we go.
There are 613 mitzvot from Torah and Torah study is one of them. According to our practice, all the mitzvot are equal to every other one. There is one exception though and that’s the commandment to study Torah. According to Talmud, Mishnah Peah 1:1, Talmud Torah kneged kulam, which is generally understood that the study of Torah is equal to all the other mitzvot combined because the study of Torah leads to all the other mitzvot.
Torah (the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) is divided into 54 portions, or what we call parshiot. We begin in Genesis and end in Deuteronomy. We read one parsha (sometimes two) every week. So, we begin at the beginning (Simchat Torah) and end at the end (Simchat Torah) which is coming up in October.
Wrestling with Torah.
Studying Torah helps me better understand the mitzvot, but that’s just the jumping off point. It’s the opportunity to also wrestle with Torah. Jews are not a people who blindly follow the rules. The very word Israel means, more or less, the people who wrestle with their faith. For me, Torah Study is the very essence of that struggle.
Teshuvah is the other important quality of Torah Study. Most of us know this word as repentance, but it’s also understood as meaning “turning.” From week to week we turn the Sefer Torah on the atzei chayim, the spindles the Torah is wound around, to the new parsha. And at the end of Deuteronomy we come to the end of Torah and must turn it back again to the beginning. Turning and turning, week by week, year by year, for centuries and, G-d willing, for centuries to come.
Our Torah study.
CSS has an active Torah study chavurah (group). It meets every Shabbat except when there’s a b’nei mitzvot. When there isn’t a regular service, it meets in a member’s home and on Zoom from 9.30a to 11.00. When there is a service, it meets at our synagogue, and on Zoom, before the service. If you want the coordinates to the meeting, write me.
My background with Torah Study goes back a couple of decades. I started my study in a group at my synagogue in California, and it very much resembled the format of CSS’s Torah Study. When our group meets on its own, it’s a rather free-wheeling experience. Sometimes, members have read the portion in advance. And sometimes, some of the members have read commentary on the portion, or listened to a podcast about the portion.
People bring different texts to Torah Study. This year, I made a commitment to reading more women’s commentary, so I’m reading The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, which is published by the Reform movement. I’m also reading Torah commentary by Rabbi Shai Held and a few other sources such as the Sefer Emet. Several of the other members of Torah Study read Etz Hayim which is published by the Conservative movement. The diversity of the texts we use help raise questions and answer questions that are raised.
Torah Study is led by Dorith Steinberg who, in addition to her excellent leadership skills, is Israeli and helps us sort out some of the meanings of the Hebrew text when different translations diverge and we want to get deeper into the text.
One of the great blessings I’ve received during the past couple of years is that, even though I moved from Madison to Arkansas to take care of my mother, I’ve been able to continue participating in Torah Study. Torah Study, our weekly Shabbat Gatherings, and the classes I take are my lifeline back to my Jewish life and some of my best friends.
I love Torah Study. I love learning Torah, and I love the people I study Torah with. And I believe that Torah Study makes me a better Jew.
And may it be for all of us a blessing.
See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!
All my love,
brian.
PS
One of the klezmer groups I follow on Bandcamp has a new release and I want to share it with you.